TOOELE MGRS. BENDING SAFETY RULES

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@igc.org>]

 for further information:
 Bob Schaeffer (617) 489-0461
 Melissa Tuckey (801) 532-2900
 Craig Williams (606) 986-7565

 for immediate release, Thursday, March 6, 1997
 PLANT SAFETY COORDINATOR TELLS FEDERAL COURT
 TOOELE PLANT MANAGERS HAVE BEEN 
 "SIGNIFICANTLY BENDING, PERHAPS BREAKING, THE RULES"

 Salt Lake City - The Tooele, Utah, chemical weapons incinerator employee
responsible for writing the controversial facility's plan to assure safety
and compliance today testified in Federal Court regarding significant
problems in the operations and safety culture at the plant. 
 Don Smith, Program Development Coordinator, who has worked at Tooele
since 1990, produced a detailed, personal work diary in which he had
recorded his observations and concerns about many previously unreported
incidents at the plant.
 When the incinerator was forced to close due to an agent leak shortly
after beginning agent operations last August, for example, Smith reported
that there was tremendous pressure on the contractor to resume work, no
matter what the risk. Noting that a government manager had announced, "The
longer TOCDEF remains shut down, the greater the chance the opponents will
keep us shut down," Smith's journal for August 29, 1996 concludes, "To allow
TOCDEF to restart agent operations, they are significantly bending, perhaps
breaking, the rules. It is a very dangerous position to be found on
restarting at the sacrifice of safety, quality and the environment." 
 At about the same time, Smith observed, "EG&G (the Tooele plant
contractor) remains in crisis mode. I don't have any hope of improvement if
we continue with current leadership." Smith says he wrote a memo to senior
plant managers stating some of his concerns. 
 Smith's diary also disclosed that the plant's liquid nerve agent
incinerator has leaked seven times, problems which have not been previously
made public, and that cracks in concrete floors and walls date back to 1990.
Smith says he reported concerns about the quality of construction material,
including missing concrete reinforcing rods, at the time concrete was being
poured. 
 Lawyers for the environmental and veterans groups who are seeking to
shut down the only incinerator on the U.S mainland burning chemical weapons
had subpoenaed Smith and the documents. 

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excerpts from Smith's journal will be available on Friday, March 7
 * * * Bob Schaeffer, Public Policy Communications * * *
 73 Trowbridge Street, Belmont, MA 02178 
 phone: (617) 489-0461 fax: (617) 489-6841